Children v's Animals

When asked what I like to photograph most I always say animals and flowers,  people are surprised that I don't do children. My usual answer to that is I don't have the opportunity, which is a joke in itself considering I am surrounded by children five days a week at work and I know if I asked the parents if I could photogarph their child/ren for myself and not work they would say "yes of course you can". Which is very nice but I never ask.

Anyway back at the beginning of the summer I thought it would be nice to have a go at photographing children. So I did ask one of my mum's. She did say "yes of course you can".  So today I finally went round, (no I haven't been slack, she gave birth to her third shortly after my asking, so I left it for awhile!) 

Now I know that photgraphing animals is not everyone's cup of tea or that easy (or so everyone tells me). They may watch me and wait until I have got myself into just the right position to get the best shot of them and just as I am about to press the shutter they turn their back on me, walk away or do something else that I don't want to take a picture of. They may gang up on me, bite my camera equipment or me, sit on it as in the case of Mr Robin (David Bailey in a former life).  They disappear as soon as I appear. Alittle like the Kit Kat advert really or worse still they just don't appear.

Well, having spent the morning trying to get a brother and sister (bare in mind I know both children well as I look after them at work) to calm down as they were so excited that I was going to their house, to sit next to each other on a bean bag and just look at me or each other, not to be rolling on top of each other, running around the room, hiding their faces from me and the like.............. I have decided that animals are far far easier to photogaph and maybe for now I will stick with them.  Also, with animals they don't ask to see the photos, now I am worrying that mum won't think much of what I managed to get out of 157 shots!!!!!!

Having said all that I had a lovely morning, really enjoyed myself and would love to give it another go.

Oh well back to the day tomorrow.

Ducata - I believe.

Back in the summer I bought a plant in the sale section in the local garden centre, the leaves had been eaten by slugs and there were not flowers or buds on it, but the picture on the label looked stunning.  So I spent £6.50 on a dying plant - much to my mother in laws amusment at the time.  I brought it home, put it in the greenhouse and gave it a good drink.  Within a week it had buds on it and it has not stopped flowering since and they are stunning, I have never seen anything like them before.  They only last a day or two but open in stages.  Her is the first stage (well what I call the first stage anyway).

The next stage is when the petal that form the star in the middle open out.

I Do

What better way to spend a wet summer Sunday (which just happens to be the last day of my holiday) in Cornwall when recovering from a migraine double whammy and suffering a bad back, than playing with your camera and some still life.... and here is what I came up with.  Hope you like it.

Did a landscape and portrait version to see which I like the best - think it is the portrait as I like the black showing at the top, though I like the closeness of the landscape.  What do you think?

Just as I was packing up, I noticed this little chap in the garden again, first time we have seen him this year.

Jelly Fish anyone?

The water around the harbour in Nessabar was full of these jelly fish all different sizes, I found them fascinating to watch them swimming around so graceful.  I was really pleased with this photo though I nearly fell in whilst taking it.  Mick wasn't too impressed as it would have ended up in a trip to the hosp - not ideal when you are due to fly home in 2 hrs!!  It did remind me to pay more attention to H&S when snapping though!